The Minister for Social Welfare, Women and Poverty Alleviation Dr Jiko Luveni will be visiting Tavualevu village in Ba Province and Vanuakula village in Tavua tomorrow.
This visit commits the Ministry to creating awareness on the 16 Days of Activism and the Zero Tolerance Violence Free Community (ZTVFC) Program. Dr Luveni will be presenting a certificate of commitment to Vanuakula village for its commitment to zero tolerance violence free program while Tavualevu village will be presented with certificate of declaration.
This ministerial visit will also facilitate an open discussion for the two communities to seek government assistance on socioeconomic issues pertaining to their livelihood. The minister is also scheduled to visit Nasau and Veinuqa village in Tailevu on Thursday 6th December, 2012.
Veinuqa is one of the new communities in Tailevu to join zero tolerance violence free community program this year. It will be presented with certificate of commitment and a gatekeeping committee will be formed and will be given one year to see absolute tolerance on all forms of violence against women before getting declared as zero tolerance violence free community.
Launched in 2008 by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Women and Poverty Alleviation, the Zero Tolerance Violence Free Community (ZTVFC) Campaign is receiving a good support from various communities wanting to join hands with the government in eliminating violence against women and children.
In 2011, 15 communities joined the Ministry for Women’s campaign to stop violence against women. The campaign calls for the set-up of a Gate Keeper’s committee made up of community leaders including women and youth and the local police that form community police teams, that various relevant training including anger management, are conducted during the year. It will take one year behavior change preparation to declare absolute zero tolerance.
This year 15 new communities from different divisions have joined this program and the aim is to increase community declarations by 15 annually.
“The evaluation of the first two communities that had declared zero tolerance recorded changes in people’s perception and attitude towards the treatment of women, the way families valued women in their homes. The ZTVFC trainings from 2008 to date have seen reduction in the maltreatment of women especially within the family,” Dr Luveni said.
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